The Reporter's Body Image

One of my favorite tour stops on campus is the CIMS building
on the back side of campus. The building is home to the Goss Sunday 2000, our
ten million dollar press. The Goss 2000 is most recognized for printing the
Reporter Magazine, our campus news paper. It is the nation’s only full-color
weekly college magazine. Produced for the students, by the students, making it a great snap shot of what RIT students are really thinking about.

I bring up the Reporter because the edition printed last
week blew me away. Normally the Reports is full of qwerky articles, great for
passing time in class or for a laugh in the lounge. However, the current
edition was fantastically written and put together. The theme was “the body
issue.” All articles were written about societal influence on body image: how
the concept of beauty has changed since the era of Marilyn Monroe; the
perception of beauty in different cultures; and the influence of body image in
sports. The main story last week was “Body Issue: We’re More than just Bags of
Meat,” by Madeleine Villavicencio and Andy Rees. The article was to show that
our bodies are more than “things to walk around in.” Andy and Madeleine
photographed eight students and interviewed them on their concept of body image.
For the full story click http://reportermag.com/article/02-05-2010/body-issue.

In addition to the main article, Andy Rees’ editor’s note made
a huge impression on me. I’ve posted the note below because I believe it truly embodies
the goal of the issue. As I mentioned before, the Reporter is normally very
light hearted and brushes upon campus oddities and events. Every so often the
Reporter Staff will produce a volume that shocks the campus and makes an
impact. This weeks achieved that, reaching beyond the confines of campus and
into the issues that are facing our society nationwide. I believe college
students have the best potential to take initiative and make a difference in
the world. Andy’s note is a great personal story that introduces the magazines
articles and made me think about the issues at hand.

People are usually surprised when I tell
them that I was a “fat kid” growing up. They step back, look me over and tell
me I’m lying. Then I pull out my passport with the photo of when I was 16 and
weighing in at 240 pounds. Jaws drop.

When you’re growing up overweight, you spend a lot of time imagining what
life would be like if you were skinny. You could get the girl. You could run a
mile. You could stop getting made fun of on the school bus. Life would be
great.

Well, by the time I was starting my senior year of high school, I had
dropped 70 pounds. Strangely, I didn’t feel any different. People would come up
to me and ask, “Do you have more energy now?” I didn’t. “Did you go on a diet?”
Nope. “Are you sick?” I don’t think so. The only thing that changed was my
pants size — or so I thought.

You see, when you grow up being treated one way because of your body type
and then are suddenly not that body type, you have to start to redefine
yourself. All of the lessons that you learned from being “the fat kid” are
completely useless.

What I didn’t realize was how much of my life had been defined by the way
other people saw me. It’s kind of sick, if you think about it. That first year
post-“fat kid,” was rough. I spent most of it trying to get used to this new
husk of a body that I lived in. People didn’t know how to treat me and I didn’t
know how to treat them. It was awkward. I changed my group of friends. I wore
different clothes.

I was even stopped at passport control in Moscow because I looked nothing
like my passport photo. Try explaining via hand gestures that you lost weight.
I dare you.

But it wasn’t all bad. There were all sorts of new and interesting things
about this new person. I felt my abs for the first time. I took girls to dark
parking lots. I did my first pull-up (seriously, you have no idea what it feels
like to do your first pull-up).

It was game changing, but the scars of a childhood spent being asked how
many donuts you ate that day never really fade. I still look in the mirror and
stare at my slowly growing beer gut (you can blame this job for that), praying
to God I’m not headed back down that road.

When you’re looking through this magazine, keep in mind just how much a
person’s body image defines who they are. Take it from a fat kid.